Tutor creates shorthand app for trainee journalists

A university lecturer has created a web app to help trainee journalists learn Teeline shorthand.

The free app is viewed in a browser and has a multiple choice section for students to test their knowledge of outlines, dictation exercises read at 60, 70 and 80 words per minute, and there is a revision guide to symbols.

The multiple choice symbol test takes two minutes to complete. Students are given five seconds to guess each symbol. If the person gets them all right, they are allowed to advance to the next level.

The web app, which can be viewed on desktop, tablets or phones and is at this link, has been created by Gill Wray, a tutor in shorthand at the University of Portsmouth.

"Students are always saying they don't have enough time to do their revision, but with this app they can revise on the bus, on the train, or in between lectures," Wray said in a release from the university.

"I first came up with the idea two years ago after a conversation with a student."

She developed the app with the technical help of Emily Bennett and Pete Sparkes, online course developers. According to the release the site will be added to on a regular basis.